Graeme Sharp: This Everton senior man is playing in the hardest position

Former Everton striker Graeme Sharp has told that current star Romelu Lukaku is playing the hardest position in the team.

The powerful 23-year-old is often used in the lone striker role in Ronald Koeman’s line-ups.

He has returned with a stunning 19 goals and five assists in 28 encounters in all competitions this season and Sharp has heaped further praise on the striker.

Sharp, who played for the Toffees for 11 years between 1980 and 1991 has shared that he believes Lukaku has an incredible record for someone playing in such a tough role.

“In this day and age, when you look at the Premier League and all the players, Rom is right up there with them” told Sharp to the official Everton website.

“Then you look the age of those players and you think “wow, Lukaku is only 23!”. People forget what age he is – he is still only a young lad.

“He’s playing up front on his own and, let me tell you, that’s the hardest position for anybody. When you’ve got a strike partner alongside you, it’s a little bit easier because you can share the workload. But being there alone, it’s such a hard job. Your teammates want you to run the channel, drop in short, get in over the top – you are asked to do lots of things.

“So you look at the goals he has scored for a player his age, it’s an incredible record. He’ll be the first to say there are certain aspects of his game that he needs to improve but hats off to him for what he has already achieved.”

Lukaku has been pivotal to Everton since joining in an initial loan move from Premier League giants Chelsea in 2013.

The striker has returned a superb 80 goals and 27 assists in 155 outings for the club in all competitions and has more than justified the club record £28million fee spent on him in 2014.

With just two years now left on his current contract Toffees fans are hoping the club can agree a new deal with the striker as soon as possible.

Everton’s next Premier League match will see them take on West Brom at Goodison Park in an important clash which sees seventh take on eighth.